Crypto News Daily

North Korea drives onchain malware surge, CoinEx shuts: Asia Express

North Korea and Iran account for the majority of onchain malware, while Malaysia has been named among the most crypto curious Islamic nations.

Aave V4’s Arc market is swimming in $76 million of USDC nobody is borrowing

Aave V4 went live on the Arc Layer-1 network on Sept. 16 and attracted USDC almost immediately. By Sept. 17, point-in-time Aavescan data showed roughly $76 million supplied, less than $100,000 borrowed, and utilization near 0.1%. Suppliers quickly filled the market’s initial capacity, but borrowers ...

SEC rolls out long-awaited 'innovation exemption' for tokenized securities venues

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a blanket 5-year exemption for listing and trading tokenized securities without registering as an exchange.

Revolut Hackers Demand $3M Monero Ransom, Threaten to Sell Customer Data: Report

The group says it chose whom to target by scanning the blockchain for Revolut accounts holding significant crypto.

SEC grants temporary exemption for tokenized US stock trading

The SEC’s Innovation Exemption allows limited tokenized US stock trading on onchain venues with trading caps and transparency requirements.

SEC Clears a Path for Tokenized Stocks After Clarity Act Stumbles

The "innovation exemption" lets qualifying venues trade tokenized versions of U.S. stocks on public blockchains without registering as exchanges—though it excludes price-tracking "synthetics" and lets companies block tokenization of their shares.

BitMEX faces Celsius lawsuit ahead of exchange closure

The Celsius estate alleges BitMEX wrongfully liquidated and seized 6,360 BTC, worth nearly $490 million, during the March 2020 market crash.

Hacker turned 55 days of failed transactions into a $3 million master key that drained GalaChain wallets

GalaChain’s August exploit turned failed transactions into reusable authorization, exposing a security flaw that had survived multiple audits. The blockchain developed by Gala Games said the attacker used historical signatures from unsuccessful transactions to drain about 2 billion GALA (about $3 mi...

It’s here — SEC releases long-awaited innovation exemption to ‘bring America’s capital markets into the digital age’

The SEC released its 'innovation exemption,' positioning the measure as a response to the Senate's failure to advance crypto legislation.

S&P Global agrees to acquire OpenZeppelin in onchain security push

OpenZeppelin will continue operating as a standalone business unit under S&P Global, with financial terms of the deal not disclosed.

Ratings giant S&P Global acquires OpenZeppelin in tokenized finance risk push

Building on its recent market-data investment in Kaiko, S&P Global’s latest purchase targets the technological risks facing banks and asset managers onchain.

S&P Global to acquire blockchain security platform OpenZeppelin

S&P Global agreed to buy OpenZeppelin, which says its smart contracts have facilitated more than $37 trillion in value transfers.

Lawmakers pass bill to freeze federal Bitcoin holdings for two decades

The House Financial Services Committee advanced legislation to put a federal Bitcoin reserve into statute on Sept. 16, approving a framework that would require a 20-year holding period and annual independently audited reporting. The panel voted 28–21 to report H.R. 8957 favorably, moving the America...

UK signals end of 'light-touch' era with multi-agency raid on peer-to-peer crypto hubs

Increased enforcement coincides with detailed regulatory guidance issued to crypto firms ahead of the full framework taking effect in late 2027.

Crypto’s first big tax win comes with a catch for stakers and everyday payments

Crypto groups are pressing Congress to broaden tax relief after a House panel advanced the first digital-asset tax framework. The House Ways and Means Committee approved H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, by 38-5 on Sept. 16, sending a package covering crypto payments, stablecoins, tra...

SEC opens door to tokenized U.S. stock trading. Here’s who could benefit

The five-year experiment gives DeFi-style trading venues, tokenization firms and liquidity providers a new U.S. pathway while leaving synthetic stock tokens outside the framework.

US sanctions Iranian crypto exchange BitBank over alleged bitcoin transfers to IRGC

Treasury said the previously sanctioned Hormuz Safe platform used BitBank to transfer payments collected since June.

After Congress killed its landmark crypto bill, the SEC unlocked the $77 trillion US stock market through tokenization

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a five-year pathway for regulated US stocks to trade on blockchain-native venues. The Innovation Exemption came two days after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, a broad crypto market-structure bill that sought to establish statut...

Bitcoin holds $76,000 after Fed rate hike, but 4 demand signals flash warning

Bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $75,064.82 on Sept. 16, but recovered and reclaimed the $76,000 zone after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference wrapped up. The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.7%, the Dow dropped 1.2%, and the 2-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.734% in the same window, while Bitcoin he...

Crypto rallies through the Fed's first rate increase since 2023

Bitcoin rose 0.88% over 24 hours to $76,621 as the central bank's projections implied only one further hike. Zcash jumped 23% to a record after Paradigm disclosed a stake.

State hackers drive 420% surge in onchain malware, Chainalysis finds

North Korea-linked hackers used Tron, Aptos and BNB Chain to maintain malware infrastructure, while suspected Iran-linked actors embedded directions in Bitcoin transactions.

U.S. SEC begins prepping for around-the-clock trading that crypto treats as the norm

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dug into plans for around-the-clock trading in an event on the same morning it approved tokenized securities.

Regulators keep moving on crypto: CFTC follows SEC with developer-friendly no-action stance

Software developers who build crypto trading tools just got some breathing room from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Real stocks are finally coming on blockchain. Here’s how the SEC wants it to work

The SEC is giving tokenized stocks a regulated U.S. pathway, while keeping trading volumes, access and issuer rights tightly controlled.

Circle opens Arc mainnet as it seeks an edge for USDC utility

Circle has scheduled the public launch of Arc for Sept. 16, giving USDC a network where the same dollar balance can fund both payments and transaction fees. That could remove a common obstacle to using stablecoins, giving Circle a possible way to attract additional USDC demand as it competes with Te...

ECB opens merchant applications for controlled 2027 digital euro pilot

The European Central Bank has opened applications for online merchants to join a controlled pilot of the digital euro, its proposed retail central bank digital currency. The move brings the 2027 test closer to online checkout, but it does not put an issued digital euro into public circulation. The S...

Zcash jumps 23% as bitcoin and major tokens rise despite Fed’s first hike since 2023

Bitcoin traded above $76,000 as the Fed projected limited further tightening, while Paradigm’s Matt Huang discussed Zcash’s role as a privacy complement to bitcoin.

Chainflip to reset TRON USDT provider balances to zero following $736,000 exploit

Chainflip will set affected liquidity providers’ active TRON USDT balances to zero under a restart plan responding to the 736,442.17 USDT exploit it disclosed on Sept. 12. The cross-chain swap protocol will first record each provider’s pre-migration balance separately on-chain, preserving the amount...

Zcash gains 20% as Paradigm founder reveals firm made ZEC investment

Zcash rose about 20% in 24 hours as Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed that the firm invested in ZEC amid a broader crypto market rally.

Crypto.com registers with SEC for single-stock futures, plans US stock perps

CEO Kris Marszalek said the company is also working with the SEC and CFTC to offer single-stock perpetual futures in the U.S.

OG.com cleared by SEC to offer single-stock futures, says Crypto.com CEO

Crypto.com’s CEO said its sister exchange was cleared to offer US access to single-stock perpetual futures, as the latest platform to bridge TradFi and digital assets.

Cardano’s Splash fix patches the exploit, but leaves 2.4M ADA missing and holders trapped

Three days after Splash’s Cardano-based ADA/OADA StableSwap pool was drained, OADA holders still faced a problem that corrected code alone could not solve: the pool had lost the ADA that provided their meaningful route out of the token. Splash’s incident report said one actor used two transactions o...

Financial Data Giant S&P Global Moves Deeper Into Crypto With OpenZeppelin Deal

S&P Global is expanding into the technology risks underpinning stablecoins, tokenized funds, and other onchain financial products.

WisdomTree, MoonPay team up to expand US access to tokenized money market fund

MoonPay plans to use WisdomTree’s $1.2 billion WTGXX tokenized fund as part of its stablecoin reserves while helping expand access to US investors.

CFTC expands regulatory relief for passive trading software providers

The US regulator’s move could make it easier for crypto wallets and other apps to offer access to regulated derivatives and prediction markets without registering as introducing brokers.

CFTC Opens Door for Crypto Apps to Offer Regulated Derivatives Access

In a no-action letter, the CFTC said certain software providers can connect users to regulated derivatives markets without registering as brokers.

Ethereum’s client diversity picture fractures under incompatible estimates

Ethereum validators rely on independently built consensus clients to agree on the chain, and that diversity is a safety feature. If a defect affects a client used by too much of the network, Ethereum can stop finalizing blocks or, under more extreme conditions, finalize the wrong chain. Yet a Sept. ...

Bitcoin absorbs Fed rate hike as officials see more tightening

Bitcoin showed little immediate reaction to the Fed’s first rate increase since 2023, but 16 of 18 officials expect at least one more hike before the end of the year.

South Korean police charge 26 Polymarket users for illegal gambling: report

The country blocked local access to Polymarket last month after its media regulator ruled that the platform offers illegal gambling.

Polymarket users referred to prosecutors in South Korea: Report

South Korean police reportedly referred 18 Polymarket users to prosecutors in a gambling probe involving 26 people and $12.7 million in bets.

Revolut says no direct contact after $3 million public ransom demand

Revolut says it received no direct contact despite separate ransom demands for $3 million in Monero and 10,000 Bitcoin from competing breach claimants.

Live updates: Zcash jumps 17% as $345 million of liquidations hit crypto traders

Short sellers took the bulk of the damage, with zcash alone accounting for $56 million of forced closures.

Bitcoin’s Realized Cap contracts for the first time in a month as BTC price faces a $71,300 risk

Bitcoin stayed close to $76,500 on Sept. 17 even as two demand-related indicators weakened: Realized Cap posted its first daily contraction in 28 days, and U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded a second consecutive day of net outflows. At press time, the latest CryptoSlate Bitcoin market ...

Ethereum’s upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade clears rehearsal for a big jump in capacity

The test network raised its limit on work per block toward 200 million gas as developers prepare for a proposed October 6 public test.

Clarity Act failure may hamper U.S. crypto as industry seeks legal clarity elsewhere

The U.S. is likely to lose out to foreign markets in the short term, but SEC and CFTC rules will help underpin the industry.

FCA Targets Three More London Sites Over Unregistered P2P Crypto Trading

"Anyone running an unregistered peer-to-peer crypto business should assume we are looking at them," the FCA's enforcement chief said.

Bitcoin coils near $76.5K as US stocks rebound from Fed rate hike

Bitcoin made modest daily gains as US stocks saw upside in the aftermath of the US Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate hike since July 2023.

Bitcoin Bounces as Markets Brace for the Fed’s Next Move

The Federal Reserve's first rate increase since 2023 barely dented crypto prices, but what comes next could change calculations on Wall Street.

Stellar activates Protocol 28 as network hits record throughput and RWA value climbs

Stellar activated Protocol 28 as the blockchain hit a new sustained throughput record, adding tools designed for larger smart-contract deployments. The network ran Protocol 28 by Sept. 17 after a scheduled mainnet upgrade vote a day earlier. The release lets developers move groups of Soroban smart c...

Optimism just approved the upgrade its Superchain needs before interoperability can go live

Optimism approved Upgrade 20, moving its fault-proof system toward the architecture required for future Superchain interoperability. The Ethereum layer-2 network’s governance completed voting on Sept. 16, putting OP Sepolia, Ink Sepolia, Soneium Minato and Unichain Sepolia on course for a targeted S...

Avalanche’s Helicon upgrade cuts validator lockups from 14 days to 48 hours

Avalanche’s Helicon upgrade is scheduled to give validators shorter, auto-renewing commitments while raising the uptime cutoff for rewards and reducing returns at the shortest durations. The network upgrade is set to activate on Avalanche Mainnet on Sept. 22 at 15:00 UTC. Validators must install Ava...

US lawmakers advance bill to lock Trump’s Bitcoin reserve into law

The legislation would effectively codify Trump’s Bitcoin reserve policy, locking up Bitcoin acquired through civil and criminal forfeiture for 20 years.

Ripple adds XRP payments to Stripe and Tempo’s AI standard in new developer kit

The update expands support for automated payments in XRP and RLUSD, with tools that let agents pay repeatedly for services and manage wallets across blockchains.

Bitcoin treasuries buy just 5.9K BTC in three months as paper losses linger

Bitcoin corporate treasuries remained at an unrealized loss on their holdings as the price fell below $80,000 and fresh capital inflows dwindled.

House Committee Advances US Bitcoin Reserve Bill on Party-Line Split

A substitute text adopted before the vote strips out the Federal Reserve funding routes and thins the transparency rules.

Stani’s Aave “Uber plan” could turn everyday crypto savers into Washington’s worst political nightmare

The Senate gave DeFi a policy setback on Sept. 15. Then Aave founder Stani Kulechov used it to frame a new product challenge. Aave is a decentralized-finance lending protocol surrounded by consumer and institutional products built by Aave Labs. At 2:19 p.m. Eastern time, senators rejected cloture on...

House committee moves to codify Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

A House committee advanced a bill to create a strategic bitcoin reserve, which would codify Trump's plan for permanent bitcoin holdings.

‘Not the end’: Sen. Gillibrand says Democrats still committed to passing Clarity Act

Industry analysts say it is highly unlikely for the bill to pass this Congress, and instead pointed to the SEC and CFTC's rulemaking efforts.

Bitcoin faces 2022 parallels as federal reserve resumes rate hikes

Bitcoin’s drawdown mirrors its position before the Fed’s first hike in March 2022, raising questions over whether a relief rally could precede further losses.

Why the Fed balance sheet is lying to you about the next Bitcoin rally

On Sept. 16, the Federal Reserve tightened short-term monetary policy while leaving its reserve-management toolkit in place. The Federal Open Market Committee raised the federal-funds target range by a quarter point to 3.75%–4.00% and continued its policy of maintaining ample bank reserves. The acco...

A $29B private exodus from US bonds is threatening Bitcoin’s next big rally

Foreign buyers returned to U.S. Treasury bills in July 2026, but the rebound stopped short of a broad vote of confidence in longer-dated government debt. For Bitcoin, that distinction matters because long-term Treasury yields remain a benchmark for borrowing costs and the returns available on safer ...

Why standard Bitcoin transfer figures are off by up to six times, according to the BIS

Public blockchains record every transaction, yet researchers can derive multiple measures of economic activity from the same transparent ledger. A Bank for International Settlements (BIS) working paper published Sept. 15, found that Bitcoin transfer-value estimates differed by as much as a factor of...

World launches ‘World Money’ super app with stablecoins, Stripe integration and boosted rewards

The self-custody app also plugs into Stripe, Kalshi, and Morpho, with World ID verification unlocking boosted rewards.

Is there any chance left to save the CLARITY Act?

CLARITY isn’t dead after failing a key Senate vote, but with time running short and Democrats still demanding changes, its path forward is narrowing.

Kevin O’Leary says Congress will revisit CLARITY early next year as crypto tax bill advances

The Shark Tank investor says Congress will face pressure to revive crypto market structure legislation as it moves to establish tax rules for digital assets.

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Says AI Won’t Doom Crypto Security

The Ethereum co-founder said AI could help developers mathematically verify entire software systems, turning the same technology powering new attacks into a tool for defense.

Zcash Closes On $1,400 After Coinholders Vote to Keep Bitcoin-Style Halvings

The privacy coin rose double digits Thursday and 168% over the past month in the wake of the NU7 upgrade vote.

Zcash miner Fortitude taps former Hut 8 CEO to lead ahead of public listing

Former Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton will take the helm at Fortitude as the Zcash-focused miner expands its operations and moves toward a planned public listing.

As RWA trading surges on Hyperliquid, Dragonfly’s Qureshi makes the case for a multichain future

Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi said the shift reflects crypto's broader maturation toward tokenized stocks, bonds, and other real-world assets.

Bitwise CIO Hougan revises Clarity Act outlook, says crypto bull market may continue without legislation

Bitcoin climbed above $80,000 in early September despite declining odds of the legislation passing this year, Hougan noted.

How Circle’s institutional Arc blockchain got taken over by memecoins on day one

Circle blockchain Arc's first day was dominated by memecoins, and the traders behind them had already moved on by Thursday morning.

Morning Minute: Crypto Rebounds After The Fed’s First Hike Since 2023

The Clarity Act failed to pass and FOMC hiked rates, and yet, crypto majors are green and alt leaders are flying. What does it mean?

‘There’s not enough blockspace’: Avalanche Treasury CEO says AI agents could crunch L1 blockchain capacity

Smith expects traditional financial markets to shift to 24/5 trading by mid-2027, requiring new blockchain infrastructure.

JPMorgan says bitcoin could get more support than gold if ETF hedging eases

Bitcoin could get more support than gold if investors reduce their ETF hedges, according to JPMorgan analysts.

Zcash miner Fortitude names former Hut 8 chief Jaime Leverton CEO ahead of Nasdaq deal

Leverton will lead the DCG-owned mining company as it pursues a public listing through its proposed merger with HeartSciences.

Goldman pivots, now forecasts Fed rate hike in October

The Fed is likely to raise rates by 25 basis points in October, Goldman said, drawing attention to Fed's own hawkish near term rate projections.

Grayscale’s Pandl still sees bitcoin’s $58K low as the bottom, gives clients ‘green light’

Grayscale's Zach Pandl maintains bitcoin bottomed near $58,000 as the firm gives clients a "green light" to allocate.

Crypto adoption blooming in Germany, while UK is falling ‘behind,’ says CoinShares researcher

German crypto adoption is progressing through family offices and wealth managers, while the UK’s retail-facing cryptocurrency market remains “nascent,” according to the researcher.

Bitcoin treasury firms can outperform BTC... but is the risk worth taking?

Bitcoin treasury companies promise to amplify returns over investing in Bitcoin alone, but does the potential upside outweigh the risks to the downside?

King Charles Convenes OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia and Google for AI Safety Summit

King Charles hosted senior AI executives at his Scottish estate to discuss keeping the technology "in the service of humanity," days after industry leaders called for a slowdown.

Why Is Chipotle Now Working With the CIA-Funded Palantir?

Chipotle is piloting a Palantir-built food safety dashboard after a summer of outbreaks, putting employee data in the hands of a company seeded by the CIA's venture arm.

Crypto for Advisors: Beyond bitcoin and ether

Andrew Yang Calls for AI Kill Switch as Safety Fears Mount

The former presidential candidate said lawmakers should impose liability rules and waiting periods on frontier AI firms as autonomous agents raise new cyber and labor concerns.

Your Data Could Outlive the Startup You Gave It To. Elon Musk Wants to Buy What's Left

SpaceX's AI division has held internal talks about buying customer records from dead startups—cheap fuel for Grok, no questions asked, because there's nobody left to ask them.

OpenAI Models Are Writing Their Own Jailbreak Instructions—And Sometimes Obeying Them

OpenAI's new transparency framework reveals AI models that invented fake "breach alerts," coached themselves to hide mistakes, and smuggled a file onto the public internet to talk to each other.

Security Experts Want the US and China to Promise Never to Let AI Control Nukes

Brookings researchers in the US and China are urging Washington and Beijing to agree to keep humans in control of nuclear weapons.

OpenAI discloses 6 new cases of ‘misaligned’ AI behavior

The six cases are separate from July’s incident, when OpenAI models escaped containment and hacked Hugging Face during a security evaluation.

U.S. diesel prices hit record high as bitcoin and gold struggle

Record diesel prices could feed through to consumer price inflation, confirming more Fed rate hikes. The central bank appears determined to raise rates into a oil supply shock.

Optimism creeps back into crypto, with the 2022 test still to come

Your day-ahead look for Sept. 17, 2026

OpenAI Says It's Made Progress on a Second $1 Million Math Problem

Days after its disputed Navier-Stokes claim, OpenAI says it's made "substantial progress" on another Millennium Prize math problem—and won't say which one yet.

The Ondo Finance succession crisis gets messier as Kathleen Allman’s daughter alleges ‘dementia’, alcoholism and reckless spending

The estranged daughter of 77-year-old Kathleen Allman has petitioned a Hawaiian court to establish a limited conservatorship to protect her parents’ share of her brother’s stake in Ondo.